News & Perspectives on Beer and its Culture

New Holland Brewing to Release Mexican Spice Cake as Next Dragon’s Milk Reserve

New Holland Brewing Co. (Holland, Michigan) has announced that Dragon’s Milk Reserve Mexican Spice Cake will release on April 1.

Dragon’s Milk Reserve Mexican Spice Cake arrives as the latest variant of New Holland Brewing Co.’s wildly popular Dragon’s Milk, a Bourbon Barrel Stout “with roasty malt character intermingled with deep vanilla tones, all dancing in an oak bath.” To create this variation, the base beer for Dragon’s Milk is aged for three months in Bourbon barrels with toasted chiles, cocoa nibs, vanilla, and cinnamon. This allows the beer’s chocolate character to be “enhanced by the soft chili heat and mellowed out by the flavors of vanilla and cinnamon.”

“We first brewed this variation for Michigan Brewers’ Guild Winter Beer Fest (WBF) in February of 2016,” says Brett VanderKamp, president of New Holland. “And it’s been a fan favorite ever since. People couldn’t get enough at that beer fest, at the handful of small events across the country in which we tested it, and again at this year’s WBF. It was time for this variant to own the spotlight.”

The New Holland Brewing Co. brewpubs will host release parties for Dragon’s Milk Reserve Mexican Spice Cake on April 1, and the beer will then enter distribution shortly thereafter. This limited release will be available in 4-packs of 12 oz. bottles and on draft in Alabama, Michigan, and throughout the rest of the brewery’s distribution network. All previous Dragon’s Milk Reserve releases have disappeared with a quickness, and Mexican Spice Cake should be no different. Keep that in mind and secure your stash when you stumble across it. Prost!